福州船务新秀
2012.12.16
一：本期头条
贸易风周报11月30日对中国造船业低迷和船务亏损之专辑共有15篇的报导, 其中有8篇是提及福州船务界在不景气中的创新和专业人士自组公司的报导.
1.The Fuzhou scene
While China’s big state-owned shipowners struggle to turn around heavy losses, under pressure from the Beijing government and also from financial markets, the real story of Chinese shipping may be elsewhere.
A visitor calling on Fuzhou’s owners first of all gets a strong impression of their eagerness and independence. Also remarkable is their openness. Operational costs, charter and contract-of-affreightment (COA) terms, sale prices, even bottom-line net profit figures are quoted freely.
Local owners and those who know the market say this attitude has to do with the interconnected and social nature of the city’s business culture.
Owners here often purchase shareholdings in each others’ companies in order to have a legitimate excuse for sharing information. They get insight into their competitors’ business and perhaps a chance to participate in the next deal.
The citizens of Fuzhou, unlike those of local hotbeds of shipowning in Greece, Italy or Norway in days past, are not yet conscious of the shipowners in their midst. Local owners do not make the business pages of the region’s newspapers. Even the shipping industry within China has an outdated image of their business model.
For years, Fuzhou’s bigger competitors have seen the independent shipowners here, and in Zhejiang province to the north, as a second tier — often family operations where the big brother is chief executive, little brother the chief operating officer and mother keeps the books. Locals say this model has roots in Fuzhou’s history — but it is no longer accurate.
Also outdated is the picture of Fuzhou shipowners as merely a conduit for bringing a steady stream of elderly tonnage into China to operate in low-margin Asian regional trades for a couple of years before scrapping them.
As the half-dozen shipowners profiled in these pages show, the age is coming down fast and the trading patterns are being expanded as owners seek higher returns outside the crowded Southeast Asia and Far East markets.
Sale-and-purchase (S&P) brokers and financiers are much better keyed in to Fuzhou’s development than the rest of the industry because they are the ones who are closest to the development. Among the most active brokers here in recent years have been: Simpson, Spence & Young (SSY), operating out of neighbouring Xiamen; Greece’s Intermodal; Singapore-based Star Sea Asian; Hong Kong broker Eastern Horizon; Taiwan’s Maxmart; China’s own Four Ocean, which is a team of former Intermodal brokers; and Far East Leasing, a player that stands apart because it can also offer financing.
The Shanghai office of ACM Shipping is the latest international player to break into the Fuzhou market with a new S&P team drawn from former Intermodal and SSY brokers, including young broker and Fuzhou native Jonathan Gan.
It remains true that Fuzhou owners are financially conservative, operating older tonnage intensively and with a low wage and cost base, and typically using equity wherever possible, turning to bank financing only after building up a solid cash-flow base.
But now that they have made some money, Fuzhou’s owners are upgrading with a view to worldwide trading, renewing their fleets with tonnage 10 or 15 years younger and, in some cases, with newbuildings. Chinese and, in some cases, foreign banks and leasing companies have been eager to do deals, and are sometimes offering support based on shorter charters.
Observers such as ACM’s Shanghai-based S&P manager George Eliades say this means corporate structures and financing practices will become more sophisticated as Fuzhou moves into more capital-demanding sectors.
By Bob Rust Fuzhou bob.rust@tradewindsnews.com
28 November 2012, 07:57 GMT
2. Kind Faith, the young do-it-yourselfers
Four young partners have put their industry expertise and personal savings to work in a start-up shipowning company, whose modus operandi represents a new business model for the Fuzhou space.
The young shipowners of Kind Faith Shipping — all in their early 30s — are a small and optimistic team typical of Fuzhou’s ability to generate new shipowners. They have made their start in a market where prices not far above scrap — combined with a low operating cost base — create a chance to break into the business cheaply and move on to bigger and younger things.
The four partners started the company three years ago with their shipping know-how and personal savings. All were graduates of Chinese maritime universities working for other owners and managers with specialities that complemented.
All have near-equal equity shares and each now heads up his own department — general manager Bill Zheng (Zheng Shiji) running the shipping and chartering, Lian Yi the engineering, Miao Ning the crewing and one other partner the inspection and documents side of the business.
That flat structure — with no big boss at the top to report to, and each specialist responsible for decisions in his own area — has worked well for them so far. It is not the oldest model of small shipowning in Fuzhou, and that represents change and progress in the way the city’s many small independent shipowning companies are doing business.
“The investors, the vessel sizes and ages and the trading area are all changing,” said Zheng.
“In the old days, the company was all from one family or one village,” explained Sherry Xie (Xie Xingjun) from Zheng’s chartering desk. “The boss is the older brother, the technical guy is the younger brother.”
But there are many Fuzhou owners, with many styles, she adds. Another model is one in which each vessel in the same company has a different team member in charge of it, and sometimes the largest shareholding in the special-purpose subsidiary that owns that ship.
There is also the classic model in which a single wealthy investor with a background in shipping runs the whole show, even though his expertise is only in one side of the business.
Kind Faith likes its model better because it allows the person best qualified to make the final decision quickly, without waiting for a go-ahead from the top.
“If everything in a chartering negotiation has to be reported to a big boss, every counter will waste a lot of time,” said Xie.
But now, she says, with more formally trained talent from maritime universities at Shanghai and Dalian, as well as Jimei University in nearby Xiamen, there is a more professional and internationally oriented pool to hire from, and this allows new working methods.
Kind Faith has started off buying one old ship per year — all old-timers with a life expectancy of only two or three trading years. The first vessel was scrapped earlier this year, leaving the 31,700-dwt Kind Fountain (built 1983) and 40,600-dwt Gold Fountain (built 1984), both picked up from Greeks in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Both have about the same fuel consumption, so Kind Faith is breaking even on the smaller ship and making a little over 1.5% profit per month on the larger one.
The next move is to scrap the Kind Fountain and pick up a 1990s-built panamax early next year. Markets will probably be no better but the price Zheng expects to pay then is only about 10% higher than scrap.
Like the earlier purchases, this will be done cash.
“But in the future, a bank loan is the best way to expand the company,” Zheng said.
Technical management will stay in-house. Cosco’s price is RMB 500,000 ($80,000) per ship per year just for documents of compliance (DOC), while Kind Faith can do the same job for RMB 90,000 per ship per year.
Buying quality vessels and having the technical skill to run them are crucial right now, says Sherry Xie.
“Many Fuzhou owners want to renew their fleets at this moment, and the conditions of the vessels they buy must be higher than before because they want to trade worldwide,” she said.
Shipowners' money hopes may lie in China Exim Bank
船东们资金难题因中国进出口艮行进军世界船贷业务而得到希望. (图1).
As ship finance from traditional Western banks evaporates, China Exim Bank has the opportunity to secure a world-leading market position — and thereby underpin the future of the industry — but it faces practical and political hurdles if it is to reach that goal.
Shipowners struggling for finance could be on the cusp of salvation if the long-anticipated major expansion of activity in the global market from China’s major banks finally takes off.
Warm words of encouragement and anticipation were certainly on display in Beijing this week as the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) gathered leading shipowner clients and Western banking partners to discuss its strategic options.
All appeared to be in agreement that a historic opportunity was here for China Exim Bank to not only underpin growth of China’s domestic shipping sector and secure the survival of its struggling shipyards, but also potentially to expand into financing secondhand purchases and other corporate lending to shipowners worldwide.
Backed by the balance sheet of the world’s second-richest and still rapidly growing country, China Exim Bank would appear to hold all the cards, as Western commercial banks continue their rapid retreat from ship finance in the face of the sector’s cash crisis and their own funding woes.
However, a boom in Chinese ship finance has been predicted on several occasions over the past few years but has yet to materialise as practical financial and political hurdles have impeded growth.
Shipping markets appear to be also on its side, with low newbuilding prices and high fuel costs stimulating an explosion of interest in energy-efficient and innovative new ships that could be economical to both build and operate. This will support China Exim Bank’s role as both a key funder to the nation’s shipbuilders through export sellers’ credit facilities, and to third-party shipowners with export buyers’ credit.
So notwithstanding this week’s signing of five new funding deals totalling $825m, why has not more happened so far especially with a virtual disappearance of many Western banks from the market?
It appears, as is the case with so much in shipping, to be about the price and shipowners signing what they believe is the best available deal.
Central problems are the relatively high Chinese interest rates compared to recession-hit Western levels, and the difficulties Chinese financial institutions have accessing dollar funds. Combined with the understandable risk premium for shipping loans, it has resulted in Chinese loan terms that are often higher than what could be expected from Western banks.
It has meant Chinese lending has been appropriate mostly only for large deals, or to those weaker players willing to pay virtually any price to access cash.
Amid signs that the incoming Chinese administration will open the door slightly wider to currency convertibility, it appears there is increased appreciation that for China to play a full role in the world economy it needs to free up its financial institutions.
If that does indeed occur over the next five years, then the centre of world ship finance may no longer be New York, London or even Singapore — but Beijing.
05 December 2012, 08:59 GMT
Genmar teams up with Chinese crude oil chartering giant
纽约油轮公司General Maritime 被我国Sinopec 子公司 Unipec 聘为油轮租用公司之经理. Unipec 为世界第二油轮租用者, 2011年共租用 600多艘大中型油轮,其中包括 449条 VLCC或平均每天租进 60条 VLCC….
Sources tell TradeWinds this week that Genmar will become manager of a new pool established to meet Unipec’s requirements. The New York owner will commit the seven VLCCs it now has entered in Heidmar’s Seawolf Tankers pool and its fleet of 12 suezmaxes.
The alliance is said to have been established over the past few months and plans had been to announce it officially in January, sources indicate. But Genmar had begun to inform lenders and other contacts this week of what is seen as a significant feather in its cap. Genmar could not be reached for confirmation at TradeWinds’s press time.
Unipec is one of the world’s largest movers of crude. Its requirements have at least in part been met until now by the Tankers International (TI) VLCC pool, which includes public companies Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), Euronav and others.
But during the summer, word emerged that Unipec’s contract-of-affreightment (COA) business with TI has been winding down ahead of a scheduled maturation next April. Sources suggested Unipec wanted to have greater control over handling its cargoes.
The new Genmar-managed pool would appear to be the successor to the TI vehicle and allows Unipec a new approach.
Unipec is a wholly owned affiliate of Sinopec, whose Fu Chengyu was named one of the top-five charterers in TradeWinds’s Power 2012 rankings. Unipec was rated as the second-largest tanker charterer of 2011 behind only Shell. It took more than twice as many VLCCs as anyone — a whopping 449 of its roughly 600 charters for the year.
“They are just a massive mover of crude oil,” said one broker. “They’re taking something like 60 V’s a month.”
It is thought that Unipec will handle chartering for the pool from its offices in Beijing and London, with Genmar adopting a role as pool manager.
Peter Georgiopoulos-led Genmar emerged from Chapter 11 reorganisation in May after filing for protection last November. It made a poorly timed gamble with its purchase of the Metrostar tanker fleet in June 2010 for $620m. But the five VLCCs and two suezmaxes from that buy now make up a good chunk of the tonnage that will be available for the Unipec venture.
By Joe Brady Stamford joe.brady@tradewindsnews.com
05 December 2012, 08:39 GMT
其他新闻:
1. -第一宗以人民币为单位之货运合约已于上海交易所成交.
2. -中国开发艮行和中国船级社合作扩大外商船贷业务于国内造船厂建造和聘用中国船级社服务.据报导上星期己有五宗达 8.25亿之贷款签约.
3. -专业人士指出淡水河谷公司以40万 VLOC从巴西运矿砂石到中国之运费将每吨亏损2-3块美元和投资40万大型 VLOC 船队为不智之举. (图 2).
4. -中国对进口原油的需求继续上升, 今年10月份每天进口量为 876(b/p/d)万桶或 122.5万吨或41艘 VLCC油轮, 同比上升6.8%.
二：造船 (Shipbuilding)
1. -泰国 Precious 船务公司于印度ABG 造船厂所订之2条 20,000-dwt 新船因交船期延迟被买方取消改向扬子讧造船厂订造, 造价每条 2420万美元比印度之 2800万, 每条便宜 380万美元.
2. -挪威之 Jo Tankers 公司向明德造船厂订造8条 33,000-dwt 不锈钢油轮, 造价每条 4500万美元.
3. -韩国之 Sinokor 与蚬标油公司签订5年合约, 由 Sinokor 建造20条 MR 油轮, 每条造价 3200万美元, 交船期2014/2015. 然后以每条船每天租金 12,000美元租给蚬标. 这种合约可说是双赢的.
三：港口 (Terminal)
1. -美西洛彬矶和长堤之码头工人7天大罢工经己结束. 罢工期中每天损失达一亿美金.
2. -英国 Southampton港之设备已可接纳 16,000-teu 之货箱船.
3. -世界最大之货箱船英国旗 “CMA CGM Marco Polo” (2012) 16,020-teu上星期到达英国.(图3).
4. -孟加拉国于 Cox’s Bazar所造之大型码头因环保和资金问题暂停.
四：海难 (Casualty)
1. -德国运车船 “Baltic Ace” 本月五日在鹿特丹港外与 “Corvus 3” 货箱船相撞后沉没船员5死1失踪.
五：买卖/租贷 (S/P & Chartering)
1. S & P
- New-resale (2012) 179700-dwt usd 35.50M, Europen
-“Rubin Ace” (1996) 151300-dwt usd 10.50M, Greek
-“Diamond Stream” (2006) 76000-dwt usd 16.00M, unknown
-“Ikan Bayan” (2005) 75700-dwt usd 15.00M, unkown
-“TPC Arirang” (1994) 71000-dwt usd 7.00M, unknown
-New building (2012) 58000-dwt usd 20.90M, unknown
-“Houyoshi Express” (2004) 47000-dwt usd 15.30M, Hongkong
-“Haruna Express” (2004) 45000-dwt usd 16.50M, Hong Kong
-“Desert Wind” (1985) 42000-dwt usd 3.30M, China
-“DD Leader” (1985) 25700-dwt usd 2.55M, unknown
2. DEMO
-“Longevity” (1986) 64951-dwt usd 413/ldt, Bangadesh
-“Limnos” (1992) 52630-dwt usd 415/ldt, Bangadesh
-“Italia” (1991) 47230-dwt usd 409/ldt, Bangadesh
-“MSC Dymohna” (1988) 43224-dwt usd 430/ldt, India
-“Hai Juan” (1982) 37000-dwt usd 404/ldt, Bangadesh
3. 本星期远东 2002年造二手船平均价值:
种类 油轮 干散货轮/万吨 集装箱轮 (teu)_
船型 VLCC Suezmax Aframax Cape Pmax Supramax Handy Pmax Handy Fmax_
吨位(万) 31 16 11 18 7.5 5 3 4000 1400 750
升降(百分比) -0.6% -0.4% -0.7% +0.5% - 0.8% -1.4% 0% -3.6% -1.1% -1.2%
4. Daily Summary of Baltic Exchange Dry Indices 2012.12.14
Baltic Exchange Dry Index BD 784 (- 15)
Baltic Exchange Capesize Index BPI 1440 (+ 33)
Baltic Exchange Panamax Index BPI 839 (- 32)
Baltic Exchange Supramax Index BSI 745 (- 1)
Baltic Exchange Handysize Index BHSI 443 ( 0)
5. TIMECHARTER
-“Lake D” (2011) 181480 dwt dely aps Trinidad 01/05 Jan trip redel China $11000 daily + $1.7Mlnbb – Oldendorff
-“Athenassios” (2010) 87431 dwt dely aps Indonesia spot trip redel Taiwan $5500 daily + $100000bb – cnr
-“Wadi Sudr” (1994) 70000 dwt dely psg S’pore 11/12 Dec trip via Indonesia redel China $76000 daily - cnr
-Twin Dragon” (1994) 69073 dwt dely Taichung prompt trip via Geralton redel China $6000 daily – Sinochart
-“Anna Meta” (2010) 56280 dwt dely Longkou prompt trip redel India $9750 daily – ILS Dubai
-“Medi Imabari” (2008) 56047 dwt dely psg S’pore 16/18 Dec trip via Indonesia, int. Bauxite, redel China $11000 daily – cnr
6. PERIOD
-“Moon Breeze” (2011) 91807-dwt 3-6 months usd 7500/daily cnr
-“Silver Phoenix” (2006) 74759 -dwt 4-6 months usd 8000/daily Mina Shipping
-“Thor Independence” (2001) 52407 -dwt 4-6 months usd 9250/daily Oldendorff
-“Navios Apollon” (2000) 52073 -dwt 4-6 months usd 9250/daily MUR
7. ORE
-Tbn 160000/10%, Nouadhibou/青島 01/10 Jan usd 20.00 fio, sc/30000sc -- Bunge
-Tbn 160000/10%, Saldanha Bay/青島 06/10 Jan usd 13.45 fio. sc/30000shinc -- Kumba
-Tbn 160000/10%, Seven Is./青島 15/24 Dec usd 26.50 fio. sc/30000shinc -- Rio Tinto
-“Tian Bao Hai” (2004) 170000/10%, Port Hedland/青島 21/25 Dec usd 7.90 fio, sc/30000shinc -- BHP Billiton
8. COAL
-Tbn 108000/10%, Roberts Bank/Dangjiu 21/30 Dec usd 15.00 fio. 40000 shinc/45000shinc -- Hyundai Glovis
-“Stella Charlene” (2012) 150000/10%, Richards Bay/Fangcheng 16/25 Dec usd 14.00 fio, sc/30000shinc -- DHL
六：2012/12/14 船用燃油价格(每吨/usd)
来源: Bunkerworld
IFO 380 __IFO 180 MDO MGO
新加坡 598 606 903 908
鹿特丹 572 597 ----- 905
休士顿 610 695 ----- 995
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备注: tbn = to be named ldt = light d/weight ton
usd = u.s.dollar mtpa = million ton per annum
cbm =cubic meter tpa =million metric ton per annu
